Short answers, pulled from the story.
The 50 Greatest Players in NBA History were chosen in 1996 as part of the NBA's 50th anniversary celebration. Fifty players were selected through a vote by a panel of fifty media members, former players, coaches, and executives. All fifty have since been inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame.
The list was announced by NBA commissioner David Stern on the 29th of October 1996 at the Grand Hyatt New York, which stands on the site of the Commodore Hotel where the NBA's original charter was signed in 1946. Forty-seven of the fifty players were later assembled in Cleveland during the halftime of the 1997 All-Star Game.
Fifty panelists voted in an unranked process. Sixteen were former players, thirteen were print and broadcast media members, and twenty-one were team representatives including general managers, coaches, and executives. Players were prohibited from voting for themselves and were selected without regard to position.
Eleven players were still active in the NBA when the list was announced: Charles Barkley, Clyde Drexler, Patrick Ewing, Michael Jordan, Karl Malone, Shaquille O'Neal, Hakeem Olajuwon, Robert Parish, Scottie Pippen, David Robinson, and John Stockton. Shaquille O'Neal was the last of the eleven to retire.
Yes, Lenny Wilkens was the only person named to both the 50 Greatest Players list and the Top 10 Coaches in NBA History list. Wilkens died in 2025, making him the most recently deceased member of the ten coaches.
The 1995-96 Chicago Bulls had the best single-season record in NBA history at the time of the announcement, finishing with a record of 72-10. The ten teams selected combined to average sixty-six wins per season, and each one won an NBA championship.